The family of a missing Peachtree Corners preteen said Tuesday they were “thankful” for “all the overwhelming support” they received during the search for their daughter.
“All our praise goes to God … for delivering our daughter back into our arms,” the parents of 12-year-old Kelsie Lee wrote in a brief, emailed statement to Channel 2 Action News.
Kelsie was reported missing from her Peachtree Corners home around 8:45 a.m., when her mother returned from taking a sibling to school, Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said. Another sibling reported that Kelsie had gone outside to take out the trash, but never returned. She never arrived at school.
The family’s report that Kelsie was missing was the start of an all-day search that involved several law enforcement agencies and neighbors. Three reverse-911 calls were used throughout the day to alert residents to the girl’s disappearance, and teams searched by ground and air with no luck, Ritter said.
After Gwinnett County police called off the search Monday night, neighbor Jennifer Aliff saw the girl walking on West Jones Bridge Road.
“I was driving home from Walgreens and I saw a girl walking with a backpack and thought it seemed awfully late for a little girl to be walking,” Aliff told Channel 2 Action News.
She said she continued home and told her husband, “I think I may have just saw Kelsie.”
Aliff told Channel 2 that her husband urged her to return to West Jones Bridge Road.
“So I went back, stopped next to her and said, ‘Are you Kelsie?’ ” Aliff said. “She said, ‘Yes.’
“I said, ‘Sweetheart, everybody’s looking for you. Can I take you home?’ ” Aliff told Channel 2. “And she’s like, ‘please, I’m so scared.’ ”
Kelsie was driven back to her home and reunited with her family.
Her whereabouts from the time she disappeared until the time she was found is “still under investigation,” police said Tuesday.
She “is in good health,” Gwinnett authorities said.
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